Building Buyer Personas? First, Open the Glass Door!

Sharayu Thakare07/10/2018

Building Buyer Personas? First, Open the Glass Door!

4 min read

When it comes to content creation, I had mastered the art of procrastination.

I stared at every new document blankly. I knew I shouldn’t dawdle around. But I never clearly understood where to start. I did not know precisely to who I was talking to through my articles, or what is it that they would like to hear.

It took me some time to realize that this scenario existed because I was standing outside the glass door, trying to communicate with a blurry picture.

We have been talking about buyer personas this month. In the last blog, I discussed an analogy where we spoke about a glass door between us marketers and our buyers. This glass door presents a blurry picture but obscures the complete picture of what a buyer feels, making it difficult to draw impressive results from our marketing efforts.

Steps To Building Buyer Personas

In this blog, we will discuss how to open the glass door.

Step #1: Consider Your Business Idea

There are numerous chances that a business idea arises from a frustrating experience one has had in the past. You faced a problem that needed fixing and in this process, developed a business that you successfully run today. Contemplate the pain points that you met back then. It is most likely that your potential buyers are encountering the same issues.

If this is not the case, observe the problems your acquaintances face in their routine lives. Also, it’s quite unlikely that the buyer in your buyer persona is someone you’ve never met before. Think of what this person, you already know, wants.

Step #2: Analyze Existing Data

Every business has some or the other kind of inbound data. Enterprises receive data from various sources like

Inbound phone calls

Form fills

Social media interactions

Email responses or comments

Chatbox queries

Analyze this data you have. If you’re not already leveraging your inbound phone calls, Convirza offers a unique tool, Conversation Analytics®️. Call analytics automation was created for marketers who care about attribution and for companies who need detailed phone call insights.

Convirza offers the industry’s broadest set of out-of-the-box and extensible indicators created from over 40,000 hours of data science research analyzing calls.

Step #3: Collect Additional Data

With rapid digitization, there exist some additional sources that can help you collect preliminary data. These sources include:

#1 Quora.com

Quora is a platform where people ask questions related to any and every field or industry. Look for the most common questions for your niche. These questions will help you understand what your prospects are curious about, or what is that disturbs them to a level that they seek out help.

#2 Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups are a form of virtual gatherings where like-minded people discuss trending topics, their views about these topics, discuss an expert’s opinion and carry out many such activities that can help you better understand the industry needs. Review the profiles of group members, their comments, interactions and other activities.

#3 Google Analytics

Google Analytics can help you collect data like basic demographics & interest reports of your existing viewers. Analyze the trends and traffic to your website to get insights about what your readers like to read about and leverage on that content. You can create a downloadable item for your highest ranking blogs and add some new email ids to your existing lists.

#4 Facebook Analytics/ Twitter Analytics

What Google Analytics does for your website traffic, Facebook Analytics does for your Facebook traffic. Missing these analytics is missing a vital piece of information- your prospects social media activity. Same goes with Twitter Analytics. You can efficiently analyze metrics like impressions, likes, comments, retweets and learn about what your buyers or followers like to see.

If your business is active on YouTube, YouTube Analytics can also provide you with valuable insights.

Step #4: Ask Your Existing Buyers

Honestly speaking, this is the mandatory step of building buyer personas. The first three steps are necessary to prepare you for this ultimate step- Ask your current customers. If I am to connect these steps with our glass door analogy, the first three steps help you identify the right glass door to be knocked; whereas the fourth step is the knock which not only opens the glass door but also ensures that it remains open.

Companies these days are making an effort to reach out to customers and know what they want instead of trying to convince them that they need your product. Businesses, marketing, and sales departments need to do more than simply assume they know what their customers want. These interviews, if done right will equip your team with everything they need to be successful. You just need to ask the right questions. If you ask the wrong questions, the glass door will remain partially closed, and your team’s efforts will be a waste.

Here are a few questions you must ask your selected buyers:

In which scenario did you feel the need for a solution like ours?

How did you find potential solutions?

Where do you generally look for solutions? A friend, the internet, an industry expert? Did you do anything different that day to get a solution?

What influenced your buying decision?

Was anybody else involved in your buying decision?

Why did you choose us over our competitors?

Finally, remember your buyer persona is a theory, plus it is a flawed concept. As you grow your business, test your customer avatar, involve your team and the buyers you interviewed or spoke to in the buyer persona development process.

Conclusion

There are hundreds of marketing persona examples available but none of them can match your business requirements. This is a quest you’ve to take yourself! With this blog, we’ve laid the steps of the persona development process. You just need to follow them and be successful! Grab your free copy of the buyer persona templates today!